Your review

Why do you have a CAYPIC Review?

We want to ensure that your plan is right for you, all children and young people in care, must have regular reviews of their plan. Your first Review must be held within 20 working days of you coming into care. The next Review will be held 3 months later. After that it will be every 6 months until you are no longer in care.

Your first and second reviews are likely to be a bit more formal. The IRO will want to understand how the Local Authority are achieving a permanent plan for you.

Part of the IROs role is to agree the plan for you before it is put into place. Once this has been agreed, your reviews are about making sure that there are no worries and become more about celebrating your success.

What does an IRO do?

The IRO Handbook outlines what your IRO does. The “Handbook” says that the IRO must:

• promote the voice of the child
• ensure that plans are based on a full and proper assessment of each child’s needs
• make sure that each child know how they can get hold of an advocate
• act as a safeguard against children staying in care longer than necessary, or not getting the services they need, because of a lack of good planning
• listen to children and see that they understand any changes to their care plan
• make sure that the local authority is a good “corporate parent” to children in care
  

For more information here is the link to the young persons guide to the IRO handbook

Your IRO wants to make sure that your care plan meets your needs.

This can be done by either supporting you to lead your meeting or leading your meeting for you.

They make sure that you have your say or what you want people to know is shared.

Your IRO also makes sure that people actually do what they say they will do for you.

This is your Review and it is very important that you make sure your IRO knows how you feel and what you want to happen.

The IRO also has a job to make sure that the local authority are made aware when it is not doing well enough as a “corporate parent” for children in its care. The IRO will also tell the local authority about where things are going really well for you too.

Your Review

We believe that you are the most important person at the review.  We want to make sure your voice is listened to. We want you to be involved in planning the review, deciding where it will take place,  who you want be there and how the meeting will run.

Your Review can be separate meetings and discussions, or one bigger meeting led by you and the IRO so everyone is involved who needs to be in a way you feel comfortable. We want you to attend your review wherever possible. If you do not want to attend that’s ok too, your IRO will make sure that your voice is heard.

How you can take part!

There are lots of ways that you can make sure, with the support of your IRO that your voice is heard.

• Come to your Review
• Talk to your IRO before your review
• Share info with Your Social Worker/carer about what you want to people to know
• Complete the consultations online: Ages 4-11 or Ages 12-18
• Download the consultation forms and email to youriro@wolverhampton.gov.uk

We want you to feel able to come to your review,  so we need to know what you want. We can do your meeting how you want it. Lets get creative and celebrate you. Sing us a song, show us your art work, lets play a game. Lets do it together.

Who else will be asked how your plan is working?

Your Social Worker will speak to you before your Review and ask you who you want to attend.

If you don’t want other people like school, health etc to attend then they will be asked to contribute to the Review by completing a consultation form.

We will ask that anyone who sends us information for your review shares that with you directly before the review so there are no surprises for you.

We will also invite your parents to contribute to your review. This can be in person, via a consultation form or through speaking to your Social Worker as part of completing your Social Worker report for review.

Independent Visitors

If you are a child or young person in foster care or a children's home and you're aged between 8 and 17.5 years old then you are entitled to an Independent Visitor.

An Independent Visitor is an adult volunteer who gives up some of their free time to meet you once a month to do an activity together. You'll be matched with a volunteer who has similar interests to you.

If you would like to know more about this, please ask your Social Worker or IRO.

Support and advocacy

Some children and young people will want to have an advocate (an independent person, not connected to them) attend their review with them.

Advocacy

An advocate is a person who can help you say if you don’t like something or if you don’t agree with a decision that affects your life.

Advocates are independent and confidential – they don’t work for the council or children’s services and they will not tell anyone what you say to them without your agreement (unless there is something that might cause harm to you or someone else.)

When you are looked after or in the care of children’s services, remember you have the right to:

• have a say in decisions that affect your life
• be listened to and taken seriously
• use an advocate to help look after your rights
• not be hurt or abused
• be treated fairly, whatever your race, religion, sexuality, gender, language or disability
• have your health looked after
• get the most out of your school or college

Find out more about the Children's Society Black Country Advocacy Service.

Our promises to young people

Wolverhampton’s Promise to our Children and Young People in Care.

1. We want our children to be better prepared for their Reviews.  This means the Social Worker will visit the child around 3 weeks before the Review and will ask the child’s views before writing their report.
2. The child will be fully informed about what will be talked about in the Review – there will be no surprises and we won’t talk about anything they feel uncomfortable about.  These issues can be managed outside of their meeting.
3. Our children will have choices about how they prepare for their Review.  Foster Carers will support them in making these preparations.
4. We want our Reviews to have the child at the centre, making it so they can best attend and participate.  The child will have choices about how the meeting will work; if they want to carry out an activity, who will be there, where it is held and consulted about the time and date.
5. We will keep our Reviews as small and short as possible, keeping invitees to a minimum and only at the child’s request.  Other professionals can make contributions in writing.  Reviews may be held as a series of meetings.
6. We will keep the discussion simple; mainly asking, ‘what’s going well’, ‘are we worried about anything’, ‘what needs to happen’.
7. Foster Carers will meet with their Supervising Social Workers before the Review to consider what is going well for the child and any difficulties that need to be addressed. This information will be provided in a report to review.  
8. Parents will be consulted before the Review and offered feedback by the Social Worker and IRO where appropriate and when possible; if they cannot attend the Review.
9. We will record our Reports, Care Plans and Records of the Review written for the child, in a way that is meaningful and if appropriate could be kept as part of their Life Story records.